For a quarter of a century, the unfettered voices of LGBT people have been broadcast around the world on "This Way Out: The International LGBT Radio Magazine." It's distributed weekly to over 200 local community and online radio stations around the world, can be heard via podcast and direct satellite (World Radio Network), and is available on CD by subscription.
For our whole story -- including how you can contribute -- please visit our website!

Monday, February 13, 2006

Newswrap - Week Ending 2/11

NewsWrapfor the week ending February 11, 2006(As broadcast on This Way Out program #933, distributed 2-13-06)[Written this week by Jon Beaupré and Greg Gordon, with thanks toGraham Underhill and Rex Wockner]

Reported this week by Jon Beaupré and Sheri Lunn

With headlines like "The Queers Are Among Us", tabloid newspapers inCameroon have published lists of more than 50 of the country's well-knownentertainers, government officials and sports personalities, claiming each is gay orlesbian.La Météo first ran a 3-page feature on alleged homosexuals and theiractivities. Nouvelle Afrique and L’Anecdote soon followed with similar, thoughslightly different, lists. The papers sold out so quickly that newsstands beganselling photocopies.L’Anecdote Editor François Bikoro told reporters that his paper's circulationmore than quadrupled. Publisher Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga defended thereports, saying that "Men making love to other men... may be normal in the West,but in Africa — and Cameroon, in particular — it is unthinkable... We had toring the alarm bell."The tabloid frenzy followed a virulent anti-gay Christmas Day homilydelivered by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Yaoundé Victor Tonyé Bakot, whocondemned same gender marriage and adoption by gay and lesbian couples, and denouncedthe European Union for "giving legitimacy" to homosexual acts.The tabloid reports, which name, among others, a well-known tennisstar-turned-singer, 2 other popular Cameroon musical performers and 2 Cabinet ministers,have angered queer rights activists in and outside of Cameroon, whilesparking gossip all across the West African nation. Well-known British activistPeter Tatchell called the unfolding events "just the latest homophobic outrage" inCameroon, charging that at least 11 gay men have been imprisoned withouttrial for several months following police raids on gay venues in the capital cityof Yaoundé.Paul Nkemayang, a member of Cameroon's National Communications Council, thisweek said his group has "simply advised those whose names appeared in thepublication[s] to seek legal redress, if they consider [them] very offending." Hesaid that the reporters have told him they have a "basketfull of documents"to back up their stories in court.

The fallout continues in the U.S. over the Bush administration's lateJanuary vote at the United Nations Economic and Social Council to deny hearingapplications for consultative status by the International Lesbian and GayAssociation -- or ILGA -- and a Danish queer advocacy group. Nearly 3,000non-governmental organizations have such status, which enables them to distributedocuments and speak at meetings of some U.N. bodies and conferences.Spokespeople for the State Department defended the vote, a reversal of theU.S. position 4 years ago when ILGA last applied. They cited pedophilia andILGA's alleged ties with the North American Man/Boy Love Association -- eventhough that group was kicked out of ILGA several years ago. The U.S. supportedILGA's application when opponents used those same charges to deny consultativestatus to ILGA in 2002.45 Congressmembers -- 44 Democrats and one independent -- signed a letter toSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week calling the January vote a"drastic reversal" of policy and demanding that she repudiate it. By siding withIran's motion to deny a hearing of the queer groups' consultative statusapplication, the lawmakers wrote, "the United States joined some of the world's mostoppressive regimes, among them China, Cuba, Sudan and Zimbabwe" anddemonstrated "a reprehensible inconsistency" in the protection of rights based onsexual orientation.A group of queer Iranian web-bloggers, including officers of the Persian Gay& Lesbian Organization, has also written to Rice. They ask if the U.S.representative voting with Iran "thought about the consequences of such policy onmillions of youth, including GLBT [youth] in Iran that are yearning for freedom? How do you [expect] them to believe that [the] U.S.A. sincerely want[s] tospread democracy and human rights in the Middle East and support reform inIran?" The letter also noted that Iranian youth were among very few in the MiddleEast to hold candlelight marches demonstrating support for the U.S. followingthe 9/11 attacks, and called the Bush administration vote "like a slap [in]our face."

The obnoxiously anti-queer Fred Phelps and his small congregation from theotherwise insignificant Westboro Baptist Church got the press coverage theyglory in again this week. The Kansas clan turned up at the funeral for civilrights icon Coretta Scott King, who suffered a stroke in August and died lastweek at a Baja California holistic health center. The picketers called her a"fag enabler," shouting that her advocacy on behalf of GLBT equality meant shewas "doomed to Hell." As shocked mourners passed them, members of anAtlanta-based transgender group Feminine Outlawz joined counter-protesters yelling"take your hate back to Kansas."The Church is notorious for picketing at funerals of people who have diedfrom AIDS and gay-bashed college student Matthew Shepard. They've lately beenshowing up at funerals for U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq because, according toPhelps' daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper, "they were fighting for a country thatharbors homosexuals and adulterers."At least 8 states have passed or are considering legislation to bandemonstrations within 500 feet of funerals specifically because of the WestboroChurch's actions.Speeches at the lengthy funeral for Mrs. King by President George W. Bush andhis father, and by former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, werefilled with praise for the woman who championed human rights for all. Dr. JosephLowery, who with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. founded the Southern ChristianLeadership Conference, was the first to mention her support for gays andlesbians, reminding the audience that she "frowned on homophobia." Poet and friendDr. Maya Angelou underscored that point when she said Coretta Scott King "caredfor gay and straight people alike."

Lesbians and gay men who've wanted to visit the great resorts of theCaribbean as part of all-queer cruises have received less-than-welcoming receptionsin recent years, but the tide seems to be turning. In a notorious 1998incident, a Cayman Islands official named Thomas Jefferson, then Tourism Minister ofthe tiny British protectorate, turned away an all gay cruise from docking inthe capital George Town. That decision provoked a storm of internationalprotest and led to diplomatic pressure on the Caymans by the British government. In 2000, the British Privy Council, which has authority over the Caymans,repealed the sodomy laws in all U.K. overseas territories. Nevertheless, a cruiseby GLBT families led by entertainer/activist Rosie O'Donnell in 2004 to TheBahamas caused a major uproar there. But a visit to the Caymans by Californiabased Atlantis Tours this week brought the first of almost 13,000 queertourists to the sunny island northwest of Jamaica without major incident. TheCayman's current Tourism Minister, Charles Clifford, had issued a plea to AtlantisTours urging the passengers on the all-gay cruise to behave "appropriately." And while some die-hards continued to protest gay tourists strolling downtheir streets, by most accounts both local merchants and their new queer customersthoroughly enjoyed themselves.

After years of denying the existence of queer culture, China has for thefirst time in history conducted an assessment of its estimated five to tenmillion gay men. The study, entitled "Chinese Men Who Have Sex With Men: Survey OnSex And The State Of Self-Identity" was supported by the Ford Foundation inthe United States and published by the Beijing Gender Consultation Center. Itnot only presents the first comprehensive and in-depth view of the behaviorand current status of China’s gay men, but also reveals their mostly-hiddensocial existence, which is little known to the general public. The survey wascompiled by noted Chinese scholar Tong Ge, who studied in-depth the personalexperiences of 400 gay couples. There was no assessment of the status of lesbiansor other sexual minorities. In 2003, the government conducted an AIDS surveyon six population groups across the country, including drug users,prostitutes, gay men, venereal disease patients, paid blood donors and anonymous peopleunder examination in hospitals. While that survey uncovered some AIDSinfection patterns, it revealed little about LGBT communities, and this currentsurvey is seen as a modest first step in understanding the lives of gay men in theworld’s most populous country.

However, China has banned screenings of the multi-award winning movie"Brokeback Mountain". According to a Xinhua News Agency report late last month,the movie's "sensitive topic" of gay love makes it too controversial fortheatrical release in that country. And this week the government of the United ArabEmirates did the same, saying it needed to protect its citizens from"offensive, abnormal behaviors."

And finally, a survey of another sort, released this week in Australia,shows that a majority of its citizens support rights for gay and lesbian couples. When asked the question "Do you personally agree or disagree that theFederal Government should introduce a new law which formally recognizes same sexrelationships in Australia?" 52% of the 1200 respondents agreed, 37% said theydid not, and 11% said they didn't know.According to David Scamell of the Secular Party of Australia, whichcommissioned the study, it is "unjust, unfair and out-of-touch with Australian societyfor the... Government to continue to deny gays and lesbians basic recognitionin areas like taxation, superannuation and social security". The Gay andLesbian Rights Lobby said it will be meeting with government leaders in the comingweek to discuss federal recognition of same gender relationships, althoughPrime Minister John Howard has repeatedly expressed his opposition to grantingany legal recognition to gay and lesbian couples.But hot on the heels of Valentine's Day, and in support of recognition forsame gender relationships, queer leaders and their supporters have announcedthat on February 19th at Victoria Park in Sydney they'll be conducting a MardiGras Fair Day mass planting of 10,000 pink hearts.